Jan 22, 2013

construction progress: week 11 + 12

thank you for all the comments on the door post!
it was so helpful!
i personally LOVE the 3 panel (yay! i see that most of you also voted for this option!), and my husband likes the 5 panel...and honestly, i think they both look pretty great. but after a brief meeting with the door supplier this morning, we learned that the door we wanted (the 3 panel) wasn't available in the option we wanted, and the cost to upgrade to the 3 panel door was going to cost around 2k...so we decided to go with the 5 panel doors.

anyway, the last two weeks have brought a lot of changes to our new house. we were hit with a pretty massive snowstorm, which changed the schedule of a few items on the exterior of the house, but things have been steadily happening on the interior of the house despite the piles of snow and freezing temperatures.

for starters, the roof felt and shingles were installed, and the windows went in.

the moister barrier was put up....we are still waiting for the framer to finish a few last details, and then the rest of it can go up. due to some framing changes, one window didn't fit, and had to be reordered. it should arrive this week.

i spent the better part of my saturday at the house, cleaning, while my husband was taking care of a few little framing details (more on that later!) it was SO cold! i seriously looked like a crazy person...i was all bundled up, and was wearing a scarf around my neck, a hat, AND a scarf around my hat, two pairs of socks, gloves, a coat, and tons of layers and i was still chilly!
within an hour after we left the house, my face and arms started to itch. at first i thought it was the blood coming back to my skin after being FROZEN, but then it started to turn red and REALLY itch. my husband told me it was insulation fibers that were being kicked up from my sweeping. he gave me some GREAT advice on how to get insulation fibers out of your skin:
DO not rub or scratch! (that will just cause the fibers to work deeper into your skin.) instead, get some duct tape or strapping tape and stick it on your skin. rub slightly, and then remove. repeat 3-6 times (making sure to get a new section of tape each time) over each affected area. it worked like a charm!

more excitement---- the sheet rock was stocked in the house, and the installers started hanging!
this week is going to exciting! the sheet rock will be going up, and the gas line will get installed
which means the house will have heat!

laura, most of the time the general contractor employs at least one assistant/superintendent who takes care of things like this---cleaning up the job site, running errands, picking up supplies, finishing any detail work that subcontractors can't and wont take care of. in this case, my husband is the general contractor, and we don't have any money in our budget for a superintendent, so we are taking care of all of these things. SOME subs do clean up after themselves, but for the most part, they view the job site as a giant trash can and just leave whatever they want wherever they want. its like have a few dozen more kids to pick up after! i am a little scared to see what we find in the yard once the snow melts!!

Oh my, that sounds painful with all that itchy going on! Smart husband you have, I would of never thought of that. I have a client right now who is appalled at the junk left on his job site. No matter how many times I tell him, it is the norm {which it shouldn't be but I don't think it will ever change} he still gets all elevated.

Wow! Looks like the contractors were working in cold weather. It must have been quite hard for them to finish everything. But I can see from the first day that they started that they made such a big progress. The house is almost done from the outside. I guess it’ll be easier for them to work inside now that the roof is installed. I’m looking forward to seeing this fully done.

Looks like the contractors still have a long way to go. I hope the cold weather will not hinder them from doing their work on this big project. But since the roof is already installed, I think the interior work will be easier because they are protected from cold and snow fall. Good luck to them. I’m looking forward to seeing this home finished!